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Fifty Shades of Porn Continued

Due to the popularity of my last post on Fifty Shades of Grey I have decided to write further on this issue.

It is a fact that the content of E.L James’ Trilogy is extremely graphic when it comes to scenes of a sexual nature. This is without doubt. My view that this form of literature is nothing short of pornography is still up for debate, one that will be hotly contested next term at the University of Bath Spa.

If we then all agree that the novels contain extremely graphic scenes of a sexual nature then we have a responsibility to make sure that these novels do not get into the hands of minors. The government gives guidelines to us as consumers when it comes to most types of media. Movies, DVDs, games, CDs and websites to name but a few all have an age restriction if they are deemed to be unfit for a younger audience. So why is that books have no guidelines at all?

In truth scenes containing sex and extreme violence in literature tend to be much more graphic and explicit than their movie counterparts. This is mainly due to censorship within the film industry. A film containing a character such as Christian Grey who seems to wave his penis about at every opportunity would never get rated as a PG. In fact if this were to happen there would be public outcry. Those Mary Whitehouse figures of lore along with the Christians and Muslims alike would be picketing outside every cinema across the nation. Yet an eight year old child could pop into his local Tesco’s and pick up a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey. This just happens to be on the shelves at waist height situated strategically between the children’s section and Jamie Oliver’s (The Naked Chef) new cookery book.

What is also apparent is that there is no clue on the cover as to the graphic content. In fact it could be argued that the description on the back cover uses almost the exact language that the first Twilight novel uses. Of course it is no secret that Fifty Shades of Grey started its journey in the form of fan fiction based on Stephenie Meyers’ books. It is this fact suggests that some part of the target market for James’ novels is young teenagers.

What we do need to ask ourselves is this. Do we want our children to be taught everything they know about sex from such material? Imagine your young fifteen year old daughter coming home with a contract saying, ‘Billy will only go out with me if let him control my whole life.’ Or the apple of your eye coming back from University thinking it’s normal to have sex while on your period as long as you do it in the bathroom.

Now I could be called a hypocrite on this occasion as, I, myself learnt more about sex from Jackie Collins than from any other source. My parents being devout Jehovah’s witnesses forbade any form of sex education during my childhood. So being a curious teenager I indulged in the only form of Pornography I could get hold of. Did it do me any harm? In the long term I would have had to say no. That being said I was sexually active from a young age. I never used protection as I had no idea of the risks involved. In fact I would have to say that I was very lucky.

So in short it would seem prudent to at least put a warning on these novels. Tell the reader beforehand that the contents contain graphic material. The last thing you want as a parent is your young teenager coming home from school asking. ‘Mum what are genital clamps?’

I will be following up later with full critical review of the novels. Please feel free to leave comments in the meantime. Until then, laters, baby!

One thought on “Fifty Shades of Porn Continued”

I Agree That There Should Be Warning On The Books. I Did Enjoy The First Book, Now Getting Stuck Into The Second. It Shows A Different Type Of Relationship That I Believe That Some People Do Have. I Look Forward To Reading More. Thank You Sean Sloan For Writing Such Interesting Feedback On These Books.